SEASON REVIEW: 2020 Formula 1 World Championship – McLaren F1 Team

McLaren F1 team had one of their best seasons in recent history, improving on a great 2019 campaign to bridge the gap with the top three teams in F1. For 2020, Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris continued the team after the pair helped McLaren finish fourth in the 2019 Constructors’ Championship – the highest result in the championship since 2013.

The team cracked that again in 2020 with third place in the championship with a total of 202 points. Sainz accumulated 105 points while Norris accumulated 97 points.

The heights …

The climax for the British team takes us to the us 2020 Italian Grand Prix, which will be considered one of the most exciting and entertaining races of the last decade.

Sainz took the team’s best result of the season with a second place in Monza and was unable to take his first Grand Prix victory there Pierre Gasly from AlphaTauri overtook the Spaniard. A retirement from Max Verstappen, a ten-second penalty for Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas saw Sainz next to Gasly and Lance walkwho have favourited podium places – the first time since 2013 that no driver is out Ferrari, Red Bull or Mercedes stood on the podium.

Let’s not forget, like the season for McLaren at Grand Prix of Austria, with “last lap” Norris also scored the first podium of his career, narrowing a five-second gap between him and Hamilton, who had a five-second penalty, and finishing third on the final lap.

… and the depths

It was especially hard to find lows as it seems that McLaren had a fantastic season despite the trip to the Russian Grand Prix would have been a distant memory for McLaren, especially for Sainz.

After an excellent qualifying, both drivers started on the grid with points, but that should change after one lap. A chaotic start resulted in Sainz crashing into the wall trying to get back on track at turn three and was lucky his teammate was not there when Norris fell into the pecking order while attempting to evacuate Sainz . The Spaniard’s race was ended prematurely because Norris could not prevail and finished fifteen, his lowest position of the season.

Photo credit: McLaren F1 Team

Qualification battle

The qualifying battle between the two McLaren was one of the hotly contested duels between all the other teams on the grid Abu Dhabi Grand Prix having to sort out the bottom line. Norris took the bout of qualifying as he outpaced his teammates nine times, compared to Sainz who outpaced him eight times. He lost the fight in Abu Dhabi after Norris qualified fourth and Sainz qualified sixth.

Over the calendar of seventeen races, both drivers managed fourteen times to reach the third session in qualifying and were eliminated three times in the second session, always getting past session one.

Throughout 2020, Sainz and Norris were inseparable in qualifying as the couple also shared the best qualifying result in third place – Norris in Austria and Sainz in Styria – and became one of the best duels on the grid every weekend.

Race fight

If you thought the qualifying battle was close, then in the seventeen races the racing battle was inseparable.

Sainz had to retire three more times throughout the season, including a “no start” in Belgium, while Norris suffered only one retirement. Failure to start in the Belgian Grand Prix meant Norris won the race with nine wins ahead of Sainz eight, but the Spaniard took McLaren’s highest result of the season as runner-up in the Italian Grand Prix, while Norris finished third in the Austrian Grand Prix.

The Spaniard overtook his team-mate in the drivers’ standings and achieved sixth place with 105 points – which is his highest ever result in Formula 1 in 2019. On the flip side, Norris was only beaten by eight points (97) and finished ninth – beating his first season from eleventh place last season.

Photo credit: McLaren Media Center

Season results

Photo credit: McLaren Media Center

What to look out for in 2021

By doing FIA Formula 1 Championship 2021, Norris is accompanied by an experienced F1 driver Daniel Ricciardo after Sainz agreed at the beginning of the 2020 season to switch to Ferrari for 2021. We can expect more fantastic results from the UK team that will have the Mercedes engine for 2021 and that will improve their Renault engine sufficiently.

McLaren could easily battle for podiums every weekend in 2021 if the Mercedes engine had an impact similar to Racing Point, and had another heated fight between Riccardo and Norris on the grid next year.